The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-01-15
MATCHING FINE GEMS.
The Difficulty of Getting Together "a SatI
factory Diamond Necklace.

day last week in a great hurry.
81 want" he said, with some hesita-
ton, ga diamond earring to match
this one. must have it by tomorrow
without fail, as the pair is intended for
a birthday present. l brought this one
and its mate from Europe last week,
and one was either lost or stolen"
The proprietor looked at the ear
ring critically and smiled.
you ask what is impossible" he
said. THAT is very fine diamond,
and can not be matched in weight and
color without great care, if at all. l
might have to look at thousand
stones before I could get one like it,
and might not be able to get one with
out having it cut to order There is
not ieweler in the world who can
match stone like that at days
notice, unless he stumbled on it."
The customer finally concluded to
buy another pair of earrings and have
the diamond he had put into a stud
THAT stone" said the ieweler, after
the customer had gone, holding up the
solitaire earring so that it flashed a
dozen brilliant colors, ais what is known
to the trade as fancy fine. 1t is pure
blue white and of great value. | should
say it was worth $500 carat. To match
stone of thatqualityit is very difficult.
Although within one hour | can exam
inc million dollars worth of diamonds,
| would not find one of the same weight,
color, and cut as this one. Formerly,
if a jeweler had customer who was
DESTROYS of matching a diamond of this
quality, he would ransack the jewelry
stores all over the world in order to OBJ
tain what he wanted. Of course, that
made the price so much higher to the
customer. Nowadays jewelers. prefer to
cut stone to order. 1t is not always
certain even then that the jewels will
be exactly alike. One can not always
Judge to q fraction of y carat what the
rough stone will weigh after it is cut.
"With the less valuable diamonds
this difficulty is not so great While
the supply of fancy fine diamonds in this
country is limited, there are plenty of
the poorer quality of stones. In fact,
the supply of fine diamonds all over the
world is limited
The most difficult thing for Il jeweler
to obtain is a necklace of fine diamonds.
To begin with he takes one large dia-
mond. After that all the diamonds in
the necklace must come in pairs, one on
each side. The jeweler must be even
more careful about these than he would
have to be if they were intended for ear
rings. In the latter case the jewels are
separate, and tritling fault might pass
undetected. But in q necklace where
the jewels are in one piece the slightest
difference in color would not pass I'M
noticed even by an amateur. A stone
of Il yellow shade would look like to-
paz beside white diamond. Even the
slightest difference in shape would be
plain, and put the necklace around the
throat of woman in full dress and
every fault would become doubly pro.
nounced.
ut sometimes takes a jcweler years
TO make perfect necklace of fine dia-
monds. After it is begun there are a
great many changes before it is finished.
The work of gathering the diamonds
for first-class necklace does not pay.
The profit on diamonds is only ten per
cent, at least that is all that q reputa-
BILE dealer charges.
"a customer once came to us and
asked us to make him diamond neck
lace not to exceed $4,000 in price,
That is, of course, small price for Il
necklace. in which there are from
twenty-five to fifty stones. 1t took US
nearly year to get it satisfactory, and
after counting the time and worry lost
in the work we found that our profit
was less than eight per cent That sort
of thing does not pay.
1--WE arc now engaged in making
necklace that will cost $4,000. | have
standing orders with leading diamond
merchants for certain class of dia-
monds for this necklace. 1t is intended
lOG 1t plOlllutIG SIlIC'lSo SOSlCbS itut
We have about one-half the diamonds
necessary. Before it is finished, how
ever, think it probable that the many
changes necessary to get it satisfactory
will compel us to lay aside half Of the
diamonds now selected.
Il have made hundred changes in
arranging the diamonds for single
necklace. With any other jewels this
extreme care would be unnecessary, as
defects of differences are not noticed in
them that would be glaringly apparent
in diamonds.
Zone difficulty, which is equal in the
amount of trouble it gives us to all the
others put together, is the eyesight of
our customers. Being in critical
frame of mind when they purchase dia-
monds, they see defects that do not
exist, and it is hard to convince them
that they are mistaken. The eyesight
has to be educated in studying dia-
monds, and we often spend hours in ex-
planning and showing the beauties of
diamonds to customers. Some will in
sist that two diamonds are mates when
they are MS unlike as a mulattO and